It seems like everywhere a person goes there is at least one person in view with a cell phone to their ear whether it is on the road, in a store, in a parking lot, walking down the street, etc. Even in places where cell phone usage is banned such as concert halls or movie theaters there is the occasional offender, or morelikely, at least a few people using the text messaging feature on their phone. cell phone usage has exploded over the past decade and continues to rise.

Nearly two hundred million people in the United States have cell phone and there are well over one billion users worldwide. That means there are a lot of phonessending their frequencies over the airwaves at any given time. Concern has arisen over whether or not cell phone usage can harm a person’s health. Brain cancer rates in the United States have risen since cell phone were introduced, leading some people to wonder if cell phone usage is the reason for the increase. There have been reports of people developing brain tumors in the exact same spot where they held their cell phone . Some studies have expressed concern over long-term cell phone use, believing it can lead to a person to develop cancer. That is not to say a person who uses a cell phone is going to get cancer, but some studies suggest long-term use increases a person’s risk. Things may not be all gloom and doom however.

A large study done in Denmark with almost a half million cell phone users showed no increase in cancer for cell phone users. Yet, other studies have concluded there is a greater risk of cancer but only with analog phone users. Some other studies conclude that any type of cell phone usage can raise a person’s risk for developing cancer. There are a lot of varying opinions on the subject.

According to the FDA, available data does not show there are definitely health problems associated with using wirelessphones, but the information goes on to say that there is also no proof that wireless phones are completely safe either.

India should bring out a law to protect its wildlife from the ill-effects of electromagnetic-field radiation from mobile phone towers, which may be endangering birds, bees and disturbing wildlife across the country, a government panel has recommended.

A 10-member expert panel of the Ministry of Environment and Forests formed earlier this year under bird expert Asad Rahmani, director of NGO Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), studied the phenomenon worldwide and recommended that India should regulate the installation of mobile phone towers recognising electromagnetic field— or EMF— as a serious pollutant hurting wildlife.

“We want some independent regulator which decides what kind of towers should be installed, where and in what density. Such strict regulation exists in Russia, New Zealand and a host of other countries. As a precaution, India could borrow from them because signs of such damage have been apparent for long,” Rahmani told The Indian Express.
Electromagnetic field radiation does not figure in India’s notified list of pollutants for want of incriminating, India-specific data.
After reviewing 919 international studies on this matter, the group found 593 studies that said EMF bore a significant ill-effect on behaviour and mating habits of birds like urban sparrows and in bee colonies.

In countries like Russia, China and New Zealand, regulation includes the amount of radiation a tower is permitted in certain areas and also prohibiting the installation in “sensitive” areas.
“Strictly control installation of mobile towers near wildlife protected areas, important bird areas, turtle breeding areas, bee colonies, zoos, etc up to a certain distance that should be studied before deciding and should also be practical,” said the report submitted to the ministry on Wednesday.

The committee will take up the matter at a joint meeting with the telecom ministry in December so that environmental concerns can factor in the process of installing of mobile phone towers.
Electromagnetic radiation from the towers disturb birds, bees and certain wildlife population in a way that they tend shying away from mating. Sparrows, for instance, sense the radiation as an irritant and globally evidence has been found that it destroys their eggs before hatching, the study said.